You have probably heard of the word “blog” so much that you’re starting to wonder what it is all about. Indeed, blogs have been around for many years now, and it has quickly become a popular means of expressing one’s self and sharing information through the Internet. The popularity of blogs has exploded so much so that practically everyone has at least dabbled in blogging. For those of you who are new to this, let me help you out a little bit. Let’s start with this: what is a blog?

If you’re the kind who likes “official” definitions, here are a couple. Wikipedia defines a blog as:

A blog (a contraction of the term “web log”)[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Webopedia says:

Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

I chose these two definitions (out of the countless definitions you can find out there) because of key points. One, a blog is simply a web site. It does have differences from the “regular” web site that you see, but the essence is the same. Two, a blog is authored by an individual – most of the time that is. There are blogs which are authored by several people. Bottom line is that there are distinct authors behind a blog. Three, a blog is commonly perceived as a journal which is shared with the world. While blogs have evolved much over the years to serve purposes other than “diaries,” the characteristic of being an open book to share thoughts and ideas remains the same. Four, a blog is updated regularly – not necessarily daily, but often enough – to provide fresh content. Five, the content, or entries, are usually presented chronologically, with the most recent one being first.

So basically, a blog is a web site that offers new content frequently. This content may focus on a narrow topic or be about a broad range of subjects, depending on what the blogger (that’s the person one who writes for the blog) has in mind for the blog. There are blogs which have a tight focus regarding its subject. Some blogs may have broad topics such as art and music while other have more specific topics such as the life and work of a specific artist. Examples of these blogs are Celebrific, Brewed Coffee, Forever Geek, and Yurto. There also a lot of blogs out there which do not focus on a single subject, more often than not, they are referred to as “personal blogs,” and they are actually the blogs which conform more to the diary-type label. Personal blogs can be about anything and everything under the sun – it totally depends on the blogger.

So now you know the general idea behind a blog. Is that all there is to blogging? Definitely not! For more in depth information, check out the other pages I have prepared to give you specific details on blogs and blogging.

The Eatonweb blog directory is one of the oldest directories on the web and another place where your blog needs to be listed!

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Originally posted on November 11, 2009 @ 3:36 am